Egg vs. Chicken Review

The Good

The Bad

Game-play doesn't have mainstream appeal. Controls are not intuitive; may take time to get used to.

Instead of the age-old question – which came first: the chicken or the egg? – the zany game folks over at gameLab and Playfirst are asking a different question: is the egg stronger than the chicken?

In Egg vs. Chicken, you must help the eggs win a series of battles against war-hungry chickens who are invading your territory. In fact, you have access to a time machine (the Chrono Yolk Time Vessel, no less) so you can visit different eras, such as the industrial age or medieval times, to fend off these clucking crusaders.

Don’t be fooled by its wacky premise – this strategy game can get quite difficult. And because of the silly war theme and increasingly challenging stages, this game not be for everyone. More on this in a moment.

The premise: you’re holed up in a fort with a few eggs who are vulnerable to chicken attacks on all sides. One of the main ways to stop these foul fowls is to throw eggs at them. But you can only toss eggs if three or more of the same color eggs are touching, which means you must strategically push them around your fort and bypass different colored eggs and other obstacles. What’s more, you also must align the eggs in a formation so that it will match the path of the advancing chickens before firing them.

Some of the feathery intruders require multiple hits before croaking (clucking?). Or a specific type of egg may be needed to take them down. For example, some chickens may be immune to red (fire) eggs, therefore you’ll need the frosty blue ones. Chicken soldiers who wear metal gear may only be taken out with thunder eggs that can dish out a jolt of electricity. You get the idea.

In total, there are 11 kinds of chickens to fend off, including some “boss” fighters that usually appear at the end of a time period. These chickens are very tough to defeat.

So, how do you lose the game, you ask? If any of the chickens reach your fort and begin peck their way in, you only have a limited amount of time to pelt them with eggs or else it’s game over.

Throughout the battles you can also pick up a number of power-ups, special weapons, extra eggs and other goodies dropped by the defeated chickens. For instance, a green wrench can be used on a damaged wall (caused by chicken pecks). A super repair wrench can fix an entire wall, while the rare ultra repair wrench can fix all of the fort’s walls at once.

Paint buckets can be used to color eggs however you like (brown to white, for example).

Another sought-after find is a firebomb which can be used to target a specific chicken by placing your mouse over it and clicking to fry it alive.

The comic book art, funny graphics and silly sound effects all work hand-in-hand to make this egg and chicken theme work. But because gameLab and Playfirst decided to try something different with this game, it isn’t going to appeal to as many players as their other titles. Some may not “get” this animal war premise (sort of how some people don’t “get” Monty Python humor). And it gets pretty darn tough once you hit the medieval time period and thereafter.

Another beef is the controls. In order to slide the eggs side-to-side or up-and-down you must click on the egg and then “flick” the mouse in the desired direction. While this control method is likely easier than pressing corresponding arrow keys on the keyboard, some players might find these mouse movements are unintuitive. At the very least, the mouse controls take some time to get used to.

I also didn’t find the game as addictive as other gameLab and Playfirst collaborations such as Diner Dash or Plantasia. Fun, yes? Challenging? Indeed. Silly? For sure. Egg vs. Chicken is all of these things, but it’s one of those games you’ll either love or hate (or in my case, fall somewhere straight down the middle)..

One this is for certain, though — you’ll never look at your plate of eggs or bucket of chicken the same way again.